Okay, But... Birds

E43. For millions of years, South America’s top predators weren’t cats or bears. They were birds, some taller than a person. Paleontologist Dr. Federico "Dino" Degrange of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba joins us to ask whether terror birds really earned their name. In this episode, you'll hear about: The surprising weapon a terror bird actually used to bring down its prey What left bite marks on one of the biggest terror birds ever found Why the last terror bird standing was one of the smallest All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Black-legged Seriema video contributed by Pablo Hernan Capovilla, ML662237304 Red-legged Seriema audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML189557 Black-legged Seriema audio contributed by Steven L. Hilty, ML83854

E42. Birds get sick too, and a lot of what happens next looks surprisingly familiar. Dr. Andrea Townsend of Hamilton College has spent two decades following American crows through outbreaks, and she walks Scott through what illness really does to a bird, from the family it belongs to down to the clever brain it depends on. In this episode, you'll hear about: The surprising way crows choose their partners, and what it costs them when disease comes around What a stomach bug does to one of the cleverest birds you'll ever meet Why going it alone can be the riskier move while a virus is spreading All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: American Crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843 Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML137574 Burrowing Owl audio contributed by Bob…

E41. Centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs: we have been inventing creatures that are two things at once for as long as we have told stories. Birds do it for real. Dr. Glaucia Del-Rio of the Florida Museum of Natural History studies two Amazonian antbirds that meet where a river runs out, and what their offspring say about where one species ends. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why a river can be an impossible barrier for a bird with perfectly good wings, and what researchers found when they carried birds out into the middle of one and let go How to spot a hybrid antbird at a glance, once you know which colors belong to which parent The German-Brazilian ornithologist an all-women expedition was named for, and the injury she dealt with herself, a long way from any hospital All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab…

E40. There are only 15 crane species on the planet, and 11 of them are in trouble. Dr. Andy Caven, Director of Central Flyway Programs for the International Crane Foundation, has spent his career on two of them: the sandhill cranes that pour into one stretch of Nebraska's Platte River every spring, and the whooping crane, which came back from the edge and is still nowhere near safe. Scott asks him what it actually takes to keep a bird like that on the landscape, and the answer runs through soggy grassland, private ranches, and one river worth fighting over. In this episode, you'll hear about: The number Andy gives for how many cranes stand on that stretch of river, which Scott makes him say twice How a bird that was down to a couple of dozen individuals ended up stopping a dam What a wet meadow is, and why one is so much easier to lose than to build back All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the…

E39. Every August the questions start: there is a cardinal at the feeder with no head feathers, and it looks terrible. Nothing is wrong with it. It is molting, which every bird does at least every year. Dr. Ryan Terrill of the San Diego Natural History Museum studies what a feather endures over a year and what it takes to replace one, and he makes the case that the few weeks a bird spends looking its worst may be the most consequential weeks it has. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why the cardinal at your feeder in late summer looks like it lost a fight What a bird quietly gives up during the weeks it is growing new feathers The hundreds of miles some birds fly for the sake of a new set of feathers All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Northern Cardinal audio contributed by…

E38. You have pulled one out of a jacket sleeve at a bad angle, picked one up on a walk, and you are almost certainly within arm's reach of a few thousand of them right now. Dr. Cody Limber, who recently finished his PhD at Yale, spent it taking growing feathers apart one cell at a time to find out what they are actually made of. A feather is not a fancy scale, it does not grow the way you would guess, and after all this time nobody can say what the first ones were for. In this episode, you'll hear about: The strangest things growing out of birds, and which of them actually count as feathers What a feather is actually made of, once you smash one into individual cells and read what every cell was doing What a feather actually is, whether it is alive or dead, how it is put together, and the coordination that color and pattern demand All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders.…

E37. A bird called Wisdom was banded on Midway Atoll in 1956 and is still laying eggs today, which makes her at least 75 and the oldest known wild bird on the planet. She has also outlived the man who banded her, and most of the scientists who tracked her since. Dr. Etienne Rouby studies long-lived seabirds at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU Boulder, working with data from the French sub-Antarctic islands where wandering albatross have been followed for more than half a century. Scott asks him what you can learn from a bird that will outlast your career, your funding, and possibly your field station. In this episode you'll hear about: What a fledgling albatross does for the first five years of its life, and why nobody really knows The fishing gear change that pulled a colony back from the brink, and how long it took to see it working Why a very good year for female albatross is a very bad year for the males All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But...…

E36. Hummingbirds run one of the fastest metabolisms of any animal with a backbone, which is why we picture them as permanently buzzing. Scott sits down with Dr. Anusha Shankar, assistant professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who studies how hummingbirds budget energy in a world that keeps moving the goalposts. It turns out the blur at your feeder is the exception, not the rule. In this episode you'll hear about: Why the same bird might spend three hours a day flying, or thirteen, depending entirely on what the flowers are doing What happens overnight when a hummingbird lets itself go cold, and how long it takes to come back Seven months in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, and the hummingbirds that sat on the nets and waited Plus: the doubly labeled water method, a sugar concentration threshold you can taste-test at your own feeder at your own risk, and the reason Anusha gets called the hummingbird pee person. The "snoring" hummingbird video Scott and Anusha discuss:…

E35. Eighteen species of small brown bird on a pile of volcanic rock have taught us more about how evolution actually works than almost anything else on Earth. Not because Darwin figured them out. He didn't. Because a handful of scientists went back, banded every bird on one island, and watched it happen in real time. Scott heads to the Galapagos with Dr. Erik Enbody, Assistant Professor of Computational Biology at Cornell University, to find out how one ancestor became eighteen, why the beak is the only thing worth looking at, and what happens when species that aren't supposed to interbreed start swapping genes anyway. In this episode you'll hear about: The island so small you can band every bird on it, and the drought that killed almost all of them One gene that explains 40% of beak size, when nothing in human height explains even 1% The finch that does something mind-blowingly villainous and what it says about how far evolution will go All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to…

E34. Not all birds build one, but for the ones that do, a nest has a single job and a shockingly wide range of ways to get it done. Dr. Vanya Rohwer, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, joins Scott to walk the far end of that spectrum, from nests made entirely of spit to a colony structure heavy enough to snap the tree it sits in. In this episode you'll hear about: The complete and comical inventory of one hamerkop nest, read aloud, contents included What a bird does when you hand it a nest somebody else already built Why a shed snakeskin in a tree cavity is a calculated decoration New episodes every Thursday. If the show is doing it for you, leave a rating or hit follow. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But… Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: American Robin audio…

E33. When the air temperature climbs past a bird's own body temperature, staying cool stops being free and starts to cost them water they may not have. Dr. Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, has spent his career studying how desert birds survive heat that should kill them, and what happens when it finally gets too hot. In this episode you'll hear about: Why some backyard birds can shrug off oven-like temperatures while others just a few feet away don't make it The strange, water-saving trick birds use to dump heat without a single drop of sweat What the birds dying in these heatwaves are trying to tell us about what's coming All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: White-winged Dove audio contributed by Raphaël Nussbaumer, ML571978241 Verdin audio contributed by Bob McGuire,…

E32. Wildfire smoke is blanketing more of the map every year, and it turns out a smoky sky changes everything for birds, from how they breathe to whether we can find them at all. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is back to walk Scott through what all that haze is doing to the birds living in it. In this episode: Birds don't breathe the way we do, and that single fact shapes everything about how smoke hits them Stay, shift, or go: the framework for what a bird actually does when the air turns toxic When the birds go quiet, it isn't always because they left Data collection for Project Phoenix is open now through the end of November. If you're on the West Coast, you can sign up at projectphoenix.study and log a 10-minute count from wherever you are, even your own window. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the…

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recording and transcribing the songs of the Pied Butcherbird, an Australian songbird whose vocal life keeps blurring that line. In this episode: How a single pied butcherbird can sing for seven hours through the night, almost never repeating itself, then return the next spring with a brand new repertoire What a violin can and can't reproduce when it tries to follow a butcherbird, from steep glissandos to rattles a human instrument simply cannot make The case for birdsong as music All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Winter Wren audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML136183 Hermit…

E30. That wall of birdsong outside your window at sunrise has a name, a structure, and a surprising amount of drama. This week Scott talks with Dr. Dan Mennill, a professor at the University of Windsor who wires whole forests with microphones to eavesdrop on the entire neighborhood at once, about what the dawn chorus is actually for, and what it means when it starts to thin out. In this episode: Why dawn, why so loud, and who gets to sing first (hint: it's not about who's the best singer) What 16 microphones and kilometers of cable revealed about birds negotiating in real time What happened when one field site went quiet, and why that quiet is louder than it sounds Listen now, then tell us what your morning chorus sounds like. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Soundscape…

E29. Standing at 11,000 feet, lungs burning, Scott watched birds go about their afternoon in the exact thin air that had nearly taken him out. This week he sits down with Dr. Chris Witt, evolutionary biologist at the University of New Mexico and curator of birds at the Museum of Southwestern Biology, who has spent his career figuring out how birds make a living in the thinnest air on Earth. From the hummingbird blood that rewrites itself to match a mountainside to a five-pound coot that has no business existing, this one is about the birds thriving where our bodies would quit. In this episode: Why a single Andean slope can stack dozens of hummingbird species right on top of each other, each locked to its own band of elevation How the same oxygen-grabbing protein keeps evolving the same way, over and over, in a pattern so predictable it runs in reverse The record-holders pulling off things up high that sound like they shouldn't be possible Chris doesn't just tell us about these birds, he shows us, so you may…

E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tracing what variable, unforgiving environments actually do to bird cognition, and the answer flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head. In this episode: Why the harshest places on Earth produce two kinds of birds: the puzzle-solving geniuses and the brute-force survivors, with almost nothing in between How big brains might not have evolved for the reasons we always assumed Why being one of the smartest birds in the sky can come with a hidden cost All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Willow Ptarmigan audio contributed by Leonard J. Peyton, ML50031 American Crow audio…

E27. They’ve been called "rats with wings," but pigeons are actually elite athletes, historical icons, and evolutionary marvels. Scott chats with Dr. Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoc at the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, to look past the common stereotypes and uncover the remarkable biology of the Rock Pigeon. In this episode, you’ll hear about: The deep historical bond between humans and pigeons and how domestic birds successfully transitioned back into the wild. How pigeons navigate the constant threat of specialized hunters like Peregrine Falcons and Red-tailed Hawks. How mapping the DNA of feral pigeons across the Northeastern US revealed that their population structure surprisingly mirrors human geography, and what flight distances can tell us about their urban evolution. If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who needs to give pigeons a second look. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (©…

E26. We borrowed a phrase from human dating and tried to pin it on birds. Turns out they never needed the rulebook. Dr. Wenfei Tong, biologist and author of Bird Love, joins Scott to unpack what bird partnerships actually look like once you stop projecting our scripts onto them, from females who run the territory to males who guard their paternity in deeply weird ways. In this episode you'll hear about: Why the drabbest little brown bird in the garden has one of the wildest sex lives in the animal kingdom How a female calls the shots when she holds the better real estate, and what the males do about it The cloacal pecking payoff you have to hear to believe All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679 Black-capped Chickadee…

E25. The blue-footed booby has become an internet personality: cartoon feet, a goofy strut, a name that practically begs to be a punchline. But Scott sat down with Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, Universidad Científica del Sur, and one of the people who first taught him how to study seabirds in Peru, and the "fool" reputation falls apart fast. Get a booby in the air or underwater and you're watching one of the most specialized hunters in the bird family tree. In this episode you'll hear about: How six-plus booby species carve up the same ocean without starving each other out What 20 years of GPS loggers, depth tags, and bags of fresh fish revealed about who eats what Why El Niño, avian flu, and overfishing keep stacking the deck against these birds All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:…

E24. Flight is the thing we associate most with birds, so what does it mean when a lineage gives it up? Dr. Scott Edwards, Harvard, joins Scott to unpack how flightlessness evolves, why it keeps happening across the bird family tree, and what the genome reveals about how a bird loses the ability to fly. In this episode you'll hear about: How losing flight reshapes a bird's body, from feathers to forelimbs to that one famously enormous egg Why the answer wasn't where geneticists expected to find it What an extinct giant and a tiny tropical relative can tell us about where moa actually came from All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Falkland Steamer-Duck audio contributed by Maurice A. E. Rumboll, ML4114 Great Tinamou audio contributed by David L. Ross, Jr., ML57320

E22. Folklore says birds know a storm is coming before we do. Scott talks with Dr. Gunnar Kramer, Iowa State University, about what's actually happening when a tiny warbler decides it's time to fly, or time to bail. In this episode: Why the question itself might be slightly wrong, and what's really going on inside that bird A storm, some missing warblers, and a discovery nobody set out to make What 300 birds falling out of the sky over Texas can tell you about how much fuel is in the tank Listen, follow, and tell a friend who’s a little superstitious. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Yellow-billed cuckoo audio, Wil Hershberger, ML94446 Barnacle goose audio, Bob McGuire, ML235525 Golden-winged warbler video, Benjamin Clock, ML476422 Blue-winged warbler video, Eric Liner,…

E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication… just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist Dr. Jessica van der Wal, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what's actually happening when a honey hunter calls and a greater honeyguide answers. In this episode you'll hear about: What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us out The remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communities What happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the store All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from…

E21. We're talking sense and scents with Dr. Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State, and author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, who spent a decade unraveling a 200-year-old myth that started with John James Audubon and a dead pig under a bush. In this episode: The bird that smells like a fresh-baked sugar cookie Why preen oil is a dating profile written in chemistry, and how seabirds use the same chemical cue that's now leading albatross parents to feed their chicks plastic The bonus myth Danielle wants gone New here? Listen, follow, and tell a friend who still thinks birds can't smell. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262 Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361 Red Knot audio contributed by…

E20. Less than 1% of what's in a museum is actually on display. So what's happening with the other 99%? Scott talks with Dr. Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, about the extraordinary scientific afterlife of a specimen in a drawer. In this episode: How birds collected 150 years ago are answering questions their collectors never imagined, from air pollution to insect decline Why falcons turned out to be closer to parrots than hawks, and what other surprises fell out of the bird family tree The case for making museum collections more open, especially to scientists from the places these specimens originally came from If you have a few seconds, please follow, rate, and leave a review for the show. It makes a huge difference in helping others discover it. Thanks for listening! All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the…

E19. More than 55 million Americans feed birds, and it's not exactly clear the birds asked us to. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist and Project Leader of FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what four decades of data tell us about whether feeding birds helps them, hurts them, or is really just for us. In this episode you'll hear about: Why bird feeding is mostly for us, and the handful of moments when it actually tips the scales for birds What forty years of FeederWatch data reveal about shifting ranges, feeder dominance, and the bird that definitely should not be bossing everyone around How to keep your yard from becoming an ecological trap, plus the best way to feed birds that doesn't involve a feeder at all Ready to join the longest-running winter bird monitoring program in North America? Sign up for Project FeederWatch's 40th season at feederwatch.org. You don't even need a feeder. Want more exclusive clips from this and future episodes. Signup for our newsletter,…

E18. Turns out "bird brain" is less of an insult and more of a compliment. Scott sits down with Dr. Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, to dig into one of the most mind-bending questions in animal behavior: are birds actually building and using tools, or are we just projecting? In this episode you'll hear about: The experiment that left researchers completely flabbergasted and rewrote what we thought we knew about animal intelligence Why flexibility, not raw smarts, is the real test of a thinking mind Whether the drive to use tools is something birds are born with, learn, or some surprising combination of both All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Woodpecker Finch audio contributed by Robert Bowman, ML82522 New Caledonian Crow audio contributed by…

E17. From sparrow songs that go viral across a continent to cockatoos that watch each other to learn how to open bins, Dr. Lucy Aplin, Australian National University / University of Zurich, studies how birds learn from each other and why it matters. Doing it for the culture? Yep. Birds are that impressive! In this episode you'll hear about: How a new white-throated sparrow song spread over 3,000 kilometers in just two decades, replacing a tune that had been stable since the 1950s The experiment that proved wild great tits can establish lasting cultural traditions through their social networks Why losing a population of birds might also mean losing knowledge that took generations to build All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob…

E16. What if the secret to raising more babies was to never raise a single one yourself? Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, Associate Adjunct Professor of Biology at East Carolina University and co-founder of Nerd Nite, has spent his career studying the strangest birds on the planet: the ones that outsource parenthood entirely. In this episode you'll hear about: The evolutionary arms race between brood parasites and their hosts, from mimetic eggs to alien-looking chick mouth patterns How the "password hypothesis" explains how brown-headed cowbirds avoid imprinting on the wrong species Why host-switching in African parasitic finches can drive the rapid formation of new species All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262…

E15. Most people picture a bird-friendly yard and imagine feeder, birdbath, maybe a decorative birdhouse with mortgage vibes. And feeders are great. But a feeder can give you the illusion of helping birds without creating the thing birds need most: habitat. In this episode, Dr. Doug Tallamy, Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, joins Scott to explain why your yard is conservation infrastructure in disguise, and what it actually takes to turn it into a place birds can live, breed, and thrive. In this episode you'll hear about: Why "plant natives" is just the beginning, and which keystone plants actually move the needle for birds The surprising reason a beautiful all-native garden can still function like a food desert What Homegrown National Park is, and how your yard fits into a continent-wide conservation strategy Ready to do more than feed birds? Join the Homegrown National Park pledge at homegrownnationalpark.org and start shifting your patch of…

E14. What do feathers, toothless beaks, and a 66-million-year-old asteroid have in common. Paleontologist Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge, joins Scott to unpack how birds evolved from dinosaurs, and why defining "bird" is trickier than you think. In this episode you'll hear about: Why Archaeopteryx had half the features of a modern bird and lacked the other half, and what that tells us about 150 million years of evolution The "Wonderchicken," a tiny fossil from the border of Belgium and the Netherlands that rewrote what we know about birds surviving the asteroid impact How micro CT scanning lets scientists digitally peer inside rocks to study fossils at micron scale without ever touching them Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library…

E13. Some birds skip having their own families and spend years helping raise their siblings instead. It sounds like altruism, but it's probably more complicated than that. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nancy Chen, UCLA, to unpack the notion that it takes a village to raise a child chick. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why some birds spend years as unpaid helpers before starting families of their own What the Florida Scrub-Jay's 50-year study at Archbold Biological Station revealed about cooperative breeding Whether helping your siblings is really altruism or just evolution doing it’s thing If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But... Birds and share it with a friend who thinks family is complicated. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Florida…

E12. Winter isn’t just “cold” for a bird, it’s a nightly survival math problem: generate enough heat, lose as little as possible, and don’t get eaten while you’re fueling up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Maria Stager, UMass Amherst, to break down the clever physiology and weird little behaviors that let birds ride out freezing temps, from icy duck feet to “feather puffball” mode to energy-saving torpor. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How birds keep their feet from freezing How feathers and shivering muscles act like a built-in winter jacket How birds manage energy overnight, including fat, roosting, and torpor All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361 Purple Martin audio contributed by…

E11. Bird vision isn’t just “better than ours,” It’s operating in a different color space, including ultraviolet. In Host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Allison Shultz, Associate Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to break down what birds can actually see, how scientists measure color in the real world, and why feather color is one of evolution’s most powerful (and misunderstood) tools. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How birds see a whole extra dimension of color (including UV) and why we can’t truly experience “bird vision” without the biology to match How feathers make color through pigments and nano-structures How studying bird color is changing fast, from spectrophotometers to UV-capable cameras, plus why female coloration and “dirty birds” are reshaping what we think we know All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the…

E10. Seasons used to feel predictable. Winter showed up, spring arrived on cue, and birds could run their annual schedules like clockwork. But now the timing is weird: early heat, late snow, shifting green-up, and food peaks that don’t always line up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Morgan Tingley, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, to unpack what “keeping up” with climate change actually means for birds, how scientists measure it, and what gives birds a fighting chance on a rapidly warming planet. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How birds “keep up” by shifting their ranges to cooler places, and the clearest real-world examples of birds already moving north Why the story is more complicated than “north and uphill,” including microclimates, precipitation shifts, and the messy reality of predicting habitat changes The full bird toolkit for coping with climate change: movement, timing (phenology), and even shrinking body size over generations, plus what we can do…

E9. Birdwatching, birding, twitching… whatever you call it, it’s got everything: quests, rare finds, elaborate gear, a sprawling universe of characters, and a deeply committed fandom. Sound familiar? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by NYT best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong to explore how modern birding became more accessible than ever (hello, Merlin and eBird), why it can feel like an open-world RPG, and what the Pokémon comparison misses. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How Ed Yong fell into birding after moving to Oakland, and why the “virtuous cycle” of noticing more makes you want to keep looking Why Merlin is more than an ID tool, and how eBird functions like “the last good social network” without clout-chasing The ethics and culture of birding today, from playback debates to the weird social dynamics of rare sightings, plus why birding is such a powerful way to connect to place, community, and change All audio, video, and images in this episode are…

E8. Cities can look like a concrete nightmare for wildlife… yet some birds are absolutely crushing it, while others vanish. In this episode of Okay, But... Birds, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Fran Bonier, Professor at Queen’s University, to unpack what “urban birds” really are, why cities create winners and losers, and what it actually costs a bird to live the high-rise life. In this episode, you’ll hear about: Which birds tend to become “city birds,” and why some species thrive in urban spaces while others disappear The concrete benefits and hidden costs of city living, plus the traits that predict an urban “winner” How scientists test whether birds are adapting and learning fast vs. being filtered by city conditions, and what the biology says about stress in urban birds All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy…

E7. Every bird song you’ve ever heard on a hike, through an open window, or sampled in a nature documentary has a story behind it. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Linda Macaulay, Chairman of the Board of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to explore how bird sounds get recorded, preserved, and shared with the world, and why audio might be one of the most powerful tools we have for understanding and protecting birds. And yes, it’s THAT Macaulay; the one with the library named after her. Casual. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How Linda helped build the world’s bird sound library and why it matters What it takes to record a clean bird vocalization in the wild and the even wilder stories behind the scenes The role of the Macaulay Library and what’s next for apps like Merlin If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks bird songs are just background noise. All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But… Birds (© Okay…

E6. While chickadees look cute, they are also running one of the most impressive memory systems in the animal world. They hide food across the landscape, then somehow return to an insane number of individual spots later, even after snow, wind, and chaos try to erase the evidence. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov, Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, to dig into how chickadee brains pull off this feat, what we know from decades of experiments. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How many caches chickadees actually make Why birds from harsher climates often have larger hippocampi How flexible brain structure really can be within an individual’s lifetime (we’re busting some myths here!) Studying these little geniuses in the lab vs. the wild If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks “bird brain” is an insult.

E5. Every spring and fall, billions of birds pull off the most ambitious commutes on Earth. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nate Senner, Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the UMass Amherst, to break down why birds migrate, how they navigate, and what happens when the world (or the bird) gets thrown off course. In this episode, you’ll hear about: Why birds migrate How birds navigate long-distance routes, and what’s instinct vs. learned How scientists track migration across continents and the wildest journey Nate has followed What happens when birds drift off course, and how climate change is reshaping routes and timing If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks migration is as simple as just “flying south.”

E4. Bird flu used to sound like a “poultry industry problem.” Now it’s showing up everywhere and rewriting the rules for wild birds, ecosystems, and what “outbreak” even means. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nichola Hill, disease ecologist and Assistant Professor at UMass Boston, to unpack what’s different about the current H5N1 wave. In this episode, you’ll hear about: How today’s H5N1 differs from past avian flu strains and why this version has scientists so alarmed What changed in the virus (and the world) to make outbreaks more frequent, widespread, and severe Why we’re seeing such intense impacts in wild bird populations right now, not just on farms The cautious good news: what vaccines, immunity, resistance, and adaptation might look like and what’s still unknown If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks bird flu is only a chicken story.

E3. One day you’re proudly sitting at 312 species… and the next day your list is missing a bird (or two). What happened? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Dave Toews, Assistant Professor at Penn State, to pull back the curtain on bird taxonomy: what a “species” even is, who decides when birds get split or lumped, and why those decisions ripple out into birding, field guides, and conservation. In this episode, you’ll hear about: What “species” means (and why it’s messier than it sounds) The split vs. lump process—and why your life list isn’t safe Who actually makes the call (committees, checklists, and gatekeepers) The kinds of evidence that move the needle (DNA, song, plumage, etc.) If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who keeps receipts for every rare bird they’ve ever seen.

E2. Bird populations are vanishing—quietly, and fast. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. John Fitzpatrick, Director Emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, unpack the landmark “3 Billion Birds” study: what it actually showed, how scientists figured it out, and what it means for the birds we thought were common and safe. In this episode, you’ll hear about: What the 2019 “3 Billion Birds” study really revealed, and how researchers combined decades of data to detect the losses Which bird groups and regions have been hit hardest and why some familiar species are suddenly in trouble How policymakers and the public have responded so far, and which conservation actions actually move the needle The genesis of eBird and how a simple idea became a global tool for tracking birds (and helped make this science possible) If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks “common” birds will always be here.

E1. Birds “mate for life”… or do they? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. Carrie Branch, Assistant Professor at Western University, pull back the curtain on avian relationships and sort out what’s romance, what’s strategy, and what’s just really good PR. In this episode, you’ll hear about: The difference between social and genetic monogamy in birds Why “monogamous” birds engage in extra-pair copulations (a.k.a. extra-curricular behavior) How males try to avoid cuckoldry with mate-guarding and other tactics Whether birds “cheat” in secret or right out in the open How researchers use DNA and multiple-paternity tests to see who really fathered which chicks If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who still thinks swans are relationship goals.

Okay, But... Birds is a weekly science-meets-storytelling podcast hosted by evolutionary biologist Dr. Scott Taylor. Each episode dives into one weird-but-true bird question through smart, funny storytelling and lively interviews with ornithologists, ecologists, artists, and unexpected experts. Follow Okay, But... Birds wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop weekly, and yes, we will talk birdie to you.